2013

1913
J
uly 1913 saw Danish physicist Niels Bohr publish the
first of three papers setting out a radical new view of
the nuclear atom. His idea a positively charged
nucleus ringed by electrons in orbits of discrete ener-
gies explained the frequencies of light emitted by hydro-
gen as electrons made leaps between orbits. Quantum rules
determined the electrons energies, preventing the instabili-
ties that had plagued previous mechanical models of atoms.
This special issue of Nature explores the origin and legacy
of Bohrs quantum atom, a model that has resonated ever
since. In 1911, Bohr began a postdoctoral year in England
that planted the seeds of his thinking. In a Comment on
page 27, historian John Heilbron relates how letters from
Bohr to his brother Harald and to his fiance, Margrethe
Nrlund, published this year, chart the dauntless physi-
cists work with J.J.Thomson and
Ernest Rutherford, and his study
of the papers of John William
Nicholson, which presaged his
breakthrough.
The kaleidoscopic nature of the electron is illuminated by
physicist Frank Wilczek in a second Comment (page31).
For most practical purposes, electrons behave like simple
point particles but at high energies, they reveal their con-
stituents in showers of quarks, gluons and neutrinos. Physi-
cists are still striving to understand puzzling manifestations
of electrons such as coupled states in superconductors and
fragments with fractional charges.
Other researchers are testing the limits of the Bohr
model by, for example, using powerful X-ray lasers to
blast away inner electrons and create hollow atoms. A
News Feature explores these and other extreme atoms,
including giant, superheavy and antimatter forms
(page22). Such explorations may hit limits on atomic
and nuclear size, as two physicists discuss in a News
and Views Forum on page 40.
Wildly courageous and at ease
with ambiguity, even Bohr would
have struggled to anticipate the
impacts of his vision.
THE QUANTUM ATOM
One hundred years after Niels Bohr published his model of the atom,
a special issue of Nature explores its legacy and how much
there is still to learn about atomic structure.
THE QUANTUM ATOM
A special issue
nature.com/bohr00
Nature
6 J U N E 2 0 1 3 | V O L 4 9 8 | N A T U R E | 2 1
SPECIAL
ISSUE
1927 Quantum theory developed
1932 Neutron discovered
1938 Nuclear fission observed in uranium
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1913 Bohrs quantized atom
1995 Antihydrogen made at CERN
1964 Quarks proposed
1928 Antimatter predicted
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